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Mob Rules (album)
Mob Rules is Black Sabbath's tenth studio album, released in November 1981. It peaked at number 29 on the U.S. charts. In the UK, it became the fourth Black Sabbath studio-album to attain Silver certification (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in February 1982. Album information It was the first album to feature Vinny Appice on drums, who had replaced original member Bill Ward in the middle of the tour in support of the previous year's Heaven and Hell. This led to Ozzy Osbourne dubbing the line-up "Geezer and the three Wops". The cover art is a modified version of artist Greg Hildebrandt's piece entitled Dream 1: Crucifiers from 1971, with Black Sabbath licensing its use for the cover of Mob Rules. The original artwork has been augmented for the album, where not only have the band and album names been conspicuously added to the back wall, but also the hook hanging on the left side of the structure was changed to a crucifix, and the stain in the middle of the structure has been altered to resemble a devil's head. Lastly, Greg Hildebrandt's name has been added to the bottom center of the piece, as the original was rectangular in shape with the artist's name and year in the lower left corner, thus being truncated in the album's square presentation. The lyrical themes are dark, notably on tracks such as "The Sign of the Southern Cross" and "Falling Off the Edge of the World". The Live Evil album was recorded on the Mob Rules tour. The album is included in the Black Sabbath box set The Rules of Hell. The Mob Rules lineup toured under the name Heaven & Hell from 2006 until Ronnie James Dio's death in 2010. Their only album, The Devil You Know, was released in 2009. Track listing All songs were written by Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, and Geezer Butler. All lyrics were written by Ronnie James Dio. Side one #"Turn Up the Night" – 3:42 #"Voodoo" – 4:32 #"The Sign of the Southern Cross" – 7:46 #"E5150" – 2:54 #"The Mob Rules" – 3:14 Side two #"Country Girl" – 4:02 #"Slipping Away" – 3:45 #"Falling Off the Edge of the World" – 5:02 #"Over and Over" – 5:28 2010 Deluxe Edition Disc 1 Bonus Tracks # Die Young (Live, 12" Single B-Side of Mob Rules) # The Mob Rules (''Heavy Metal'' OMPS/ Original demo version) 2010 Deluxe Edition Disc 2 This is a repackaging of the previously released Limited Edition CD Live at Hammersmith Odeon # "E5150" (Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler) # "Neon Knights" (2 January 1982) (Dio, Iommi, Butler, Bill Ward) # "N.I.B." (1 January 1982) (Ozzy Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, Ward) # "Children of the Sea" (1 January 1982) (Dio, Iommi, Butler, Ward) # "Country Girl" (1 January 1982) (Dio, Iommi, Butler) # "Black Sabbath" (31 December 1981) (Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, Ward) # "War Pigs" (1 January 1982) (Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, Ward) # "Slipping Away" (31 December 1981) (Dio, Iommi, Butler) # "Iron Man" (1 January 1981) (Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, Ward) # "The Mob Rules" (31 December 1981) (Dio, Iommi, Butler) # "Heaven and Hell" (1 January 1982) (Dio, Iommi, Butler, Ward) # "Paranoid" (31 December 1981) (Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, Ward) # "Voodoo" (2 January 1982) (Dio, Iommi, Butler) # "Children of the Grave" (31 December 1981) (Osbourne, Iommi, Butler, Ward) Track information "E5150" This instrumental interlude became the concert opener on the supporting tour, replacing "Supertzar", which had been used since 1975. "E5150" would also be the opener on subsequent tours with Dio. The title is "EVIL" as roughly translated from Roman numerals: 5=V, 1=I and 50=L. "The Mob Rules" A different recording of the title track appeared in the animated motion picture Heavy Metal and is featured on the soundtrack album. In the UK, a 7" and 12" picture-sleeve single of Mob Rules (album version) preceded the album release. The B-side was a previously unavailable live version of "Die Young" (the studio version of which is on the Heaven and Hell album). Personnel ;Black Sabbath *Ronnie James Dio – vocals *Tony Iommi – guitar *Geezer Butler – bass guitar *Vinny Appice – drums ;Additional performer *Geoff Nicholls – keyboards ;Production *Produced and engineered by Martin Birch *Assistant engineers – Eddie DeLena, Angelo Arcuri *Technicians to Black Sabbath – Ian Ferguson, Michael Howse, Les Martin, Peter Resty *Remastered by Dan Hersch (2008 reissue) *Cover illustration by Greg Hildebrandt *Art direction by Richard Seireeni Category:Albums Category:1981 albums